Just playing around with photos of the indigenous man statue in my garden with 5 different views . . .
Perspectives of Garden Man
Asilidae or “Robber Fly”
is here in my garden eating one of the brilliant Green Orchid Bees. Asilidae is the Family of robber flies or assassin flies with many different species, especially here in the tropics, so I’m not likely to find the species name, but will hope someone on iNaturalist knows! 🙂 You can read about them in the Asilidae article on Wikipedia. Another fun little insect here in Costa Rica! 🙂 And Robber Flies pretty much all over the Americas! And you can see other photos on iNaturalist Costa Rica with a map of where the many photos there have come from.
See some of my other interesting CR insect photos in that gallery link.
¡Pura Vida!
Last 2 Butterflies from Calle Nueva
Well, it is a little trouble getting there, but almost always productive when I walk the 10 blocks through town to get to Calle Nueva and this May 10 walk gave me 10 species of butterflies which I finish today. Tomorrow I’ll share the 3 birds I photographed and the next day the other wildlife, then back to sharing from my garden! 🙂
These two little guys are always nice, even when one is damaged like this time: Tailed Orange – Pyrisitia proterpia (iNaturalist CR link since I have no gallery yet.) and the more common Whirlabout Skipper – Polites vibex (my gallery link). This was my first sighting of a Tailed Orange!
¡Pura Vida!
Laverna Metalmark
I used the iNaturalist A-I to hep identify this which, if correct is a new species for me. Laverna Metalmark, Calephelis laverna (iNaturalist link) is similar to other Metalmarks in my Metalmarks Gallery. I haven’t submitted it to iNaturalist yet, to see if the identifiers there agree with this ID. Here’s two shots from Calle Nueva . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Heraldica Clearwing
The Heraldica Clearwing, Ithomia heraldica (my gallery link) is a common-looking orange & black butterfly that’s found only in Costa Rica and Panama say some sources, while others say from Columbia to Mexico. Either way, mostly Central America. Here’s a couple of shots from my trek on Calle Nueva the other day.
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Not new to me or Atenas where I live, the Yellow-faced Grassquit, Tiaris olivaceus (linked to eBird) is a type of seedeater (the beak says that) and in this case prefers grasses which you can see the male chewing on in that photo. It is a Latin American bird found throughout Central America, in the Caribbean Islands and the northern edges of South America.
In my GALLERY: Yellow-faced Grassquit you can see that I’ve photographed this bird multiple times in Atenas, where I live, plus once in Monteverde and once near Volcán Tenorio.
These shots of a male and a female I got on my return walk back from Calle Nueva searching for butterflies last week. I got the female first in the cow pasture in front of my house where I also saw the male but had to follow him to a neighbor’s yard to get this shot of him . . .
The female shots are my first of a female Yellow-faced Grassquit, unless that one juvenile or immature in my gallery was a female! 🙂 And I am very pleased with this FEMALE shot (a portrait for the gallery!) . . .
Continue reading “Yellow-faced Grassquit”Cassius Blue
One of those tiny Hairstreak family of butterflies, the Cassius Blue, Leptotes cassius (my gallery link) may be a regular this year. I shared one in early April who was sitting on the wet black-topped driveway.
¡Pura Vida!
Stripe-headed Sparrow
Though it is still too windy for many birds, they have to eat and late afternoon is their last chance of the day. Two of these Stripe-headed Sparrows – Peucaea ruficauda (eBird link) were moving from a tree to the fence and to the ground, looking for possibly seeds or insects or worms. It is another purely Central American bird found from Costa Rica to Mexico. See more of my photos of this bird in my Stripe-headed Sparrow GALLERY. You will note there that I’ve seen this sparrow only one other time here in Atenas (2020) and once in Guanacaste at Rincon de la Vieja (2019). Thus not one of my regulars! 🙂 And for you birders here in Costa Rica, yes, he is very similar to the Black-striped Sparrow seen on both slopes of Costa Rica (while this one is only on the Pacific Slope), BUT with multiple obvious physical & color differences, making both easy to ID. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Palm Sunday
Though I am surrounded by palms every day in Costa Rica, I smile as I think of my memories of children on Palm Sunday waving palm fronds during my years in The Gambia, as well as in the States and here in Costa Rica! And I rejoice with Christians everywhere on the remembrance of the triumphant entry of Jesus in Jerusalem before his crucifixion and long for His second coming as I believe his sadness for Jerusalem then would be many times more today.
They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! ~John 12:13 NIV
Frangipani
The flowers of the Frangipani – Plumeria rubra (Wikipedia link) in a neighbor’s yard that I snapped from my driveway. This flowering plant is native to Central America but has been cultivated in other tropical areas around the world now. We even had some in The Gambia when I lived there back in 1999-2002! 🙂
See more flowers in my Flora & Forest Galleries.
¡Pura Vida!